Planning underway for Vul-Con 2017 this summer

Last year was another successful Vul-Con weekend event. Organizers hope to draw between 3,000 to 5,000 people to Vulcan for the 2017 Vul-Con event. Here at the Vulcan event in 2016, Manu Intiraymi, who played Icheb on Star Trek Voyager, was in attendance and signed autographs.Photo contributed

Organizers are planning another action-packed Vul-Con this year which is set to take place July 22-23 in Vulcan.

“Vul-Con 2017 planning is kicking into high gear. We have just announced our first guest: Marc Okrand,” says Shannon Clarke, tourism administrator for Vulcan Tourism, in an e-mail. “He devised the Klingon language heard in Star Trek movies and television series beginning with Start Trek III: The Search For Spock, in 1984 as well as Vulcan and Romulan dialogue heard in various Star Trek films and TV series.” All of the guests for the event should be announced by this month. Tickets went on sale Feb. 1. The vendor room will be open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. both the Saturday and Sunday of the event. There will be a costume contest, trivia questions, a silent auction and special ceremonies. Clarke says there will be a costume parade on the Saturday morning. It will take place on Centre Street in Vulcan. This is a new component to Vul-Con this year.“Our fans really missed having a parade when we switched weekends from Spock Days,” adds Clarke about the addition of the parade. There will also be question and answer panels with the Star Trek guests, photo opportunities and autographs and dinner with the guests. Clarke says there will be a couple of ceremonies taking place in downtown Vulcan, but she can’t reveal the details just yet. “It’s great putting on an event for people who love Star Trek in the Star Trek Capital of Canada,” she says.With Vulcan being a smaller town, Vul-Con tends to be a lower key event than some that take place elsewhere, but Clarke says it makes it unique. “Vulcan is a town with less then 2,000 people living here, so our convention is a more intimate convention,” adds Clarke. “Bringing an event like this to our community brings money into our small businesses in town and helps put Vulcan on the map. We are hoping that this year will be as successful as last year, which was a great event,” adds Clarke. This year, the hope is to draw between 3,000 to 5,000 visitors to Vulcan during the weekend of the event. If anyone is interested in volunteering during the event, they can visit www.vulcanconvention.com. More information about the event will continue to be released as it becomes available. Keep up to date by visiting the above mentioned website.